The president of Charity Navigator gives an insider's perspective to the inspiring, intriguing, and sometimes idiotic inner workings of the world of non-profits and charities.

Year: 2019

With a charity like Charity Water – it is advertised that all money donated to the charity ends up going to the cause. There is an anonymous benefactor that pays all the administrative fees so that when you donate to Charity Water you know that every single cent that you spend will end up in a project that is helping people in Africa get access to clean drinking water.

However Charity Water is the exception rather than the cure – and so it comes down to – how much of the cost of your donation is swallowed up by the administrative fees. There was a report recently that talked about the administrative fee of different charities – the last thing that anyone wants to see is the CEO of a charity driving a fancy car but unfortunately it would not be the first time that someone has used a charity to enrich themselves. And while the intent is not always bad – sometimes the lack of functionality in a business can cause its expenses to skyrocket.

Of course – many of these charities do not promote how much of their fee goes to administartion – and many of these charities also hire sales firms to sell their subscriptions – such as ‘Save the Children’. It is important for the consumer to be aware of how much of their money is actually going to worthwhile causes and how much is being swallowed by administrative efforts – and it is the consumer’s responsibility to find this out.

Unfortunately many charity consumers are moved to sign money over to a charity using manipulative techniques by the charity worker – something taht the charity worker is forced to do. For example with ‘Save the Children’ the charity workers are forced to use any technique they can to force the sale because the representatives for that charity are paid on a commission basis. Even other companies like Greenpeace for example – while they pay hourly – still require their reps to make a certain amount of sales and if they don’t they are eventually fired by the company.

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